I first heard Wild Belle back in October 2012 at the 930 Club when they opened for Passion Pit. I immediately fell in love with their sound & Natalie's voice, so I was excited to find out they would be back in DC this past weekend. I decided to keep up the trend of shooting more film and also experiment with pushing some film. Here are some of the pictures from the roll of Ilford HP5+ pushed to 1600.

Mission South is a name I've come to know and love. If you know me, then you have probably at least heard the name. I hope you've also heard the music, because these guys are incredibly talented and just downright awesome people.

I first met Dan, Max and John last year through the wonderful world of Twitter. (Thanks, Cara!) Shortly thereafter, the boys and I were bonding over fantasy football (they gave me a HUGE pass for not being a Redskins fan, shhh) on our way to this great rural airport for our first photo shoot. And it was amazing.

Well, things have finally come full circle, and everyone is in the know. In fact, we even had a collaborative shoot recently! And it was an absolute pleasure. You can check out Patrick's pictures (and his fun story about synchronicity) on his website here.

And here are some of my shots of Mission South at Tastee Diner in Bethesda...

Max Harwood

Dan Miller

John Beck

Ready for your close up?

Special thanks to Tastee Diner for being so great and accommodating.

And if you haven't discovered Mission South for yourself yet, then get on it!

In addition to breaking in my new lens at the Black Cat DC, I also took some shots of Mission South with my Pentax K1000 film camera. You can probably see that these shots here have a slightly different feel to them. I used Forma Holga 135-24 Black & White film (a roll I ordered last summer when I eagerly loaded my Pentax Super ME...to discover the shutter wasn't working).

I found out after the fact that the film is designed for shooting in unfavorable lighting conditions and can give different effects if you over or under expose it. I happened upon some of that unintentionally with this roll. When I used the meter to determine the proper exposure, I think I may have actually ended up over exposing the shots of Mission South, and this resulted in a bit of a foggy feel to the shots (which I am kinda digging). Then later, I thought I was under exposing the ones of Olivia and the Mates, which turned out to actually be about spot on and much more contrasty. You can see those at the end of this post.

I've said it before...I'll say it again... I am simply thrilled to be shooting with film once again. I think differently about how I photograph when shooting with film. I think more. This was my first roll of black and white that I've shot in years, and I refrained from taking a lot of shots that I realized wouldn't be optimal for black and white since what drew my eye to them in the first place was subtle differences in colors that wouldn't translate well to black and white. I found myself thinking in black and white. And, well, a concert sure did lend itself nicely to that!

In as transient a city as Washington, DC, it's not often that you encounter a true DC native. Or three of them who have been friends since the fourth grade, started a band together, went off to college in three different states and then returned to take their band to the next level.

Ladies and gentlemen...meet Mission South. That is their (much abbreviated, second hand) story.

When I realized that Mission South would be playing at the camera-friendly Black Cat last month, I decided it was time to break in my new 70-200mm lens. It was an amazing show, and I have some shots to share here! More importantly, you have the chance to check them out live for yourself this Thursday, February 7 at DC 9. And lastly, for those of you who are interested in film photography, I will be posting some shots I took at the concert with my Pentax K1000 later this week. More film!

But for now...enjoy these shots and hope to see you at the show Thursday...

Grizzly Bear is in town this week. I had the pleasure of going to their show at 9:30 Club last night, and for those of you heading to the show tonight...you are in for a treat! I even went as far as to describe the concert as blissful.

That's right, blissful.

They had these mesmerizing jellyfish lights that moved around, and all the lighting was impeccable, as it always is at 930 Club. Here are a few pictures from last night's show that I wanted to share. iPhone only, from the perch. I like to enjoy the concert... :-)